TLoS: Warlord Takeo Ch. 23

Hunter followed Prowlus everywhere he went. Together, they helped clean up the dead, patch the wounded, assure the females and cubs of their saftey, and mourn the lost. . Prowlus had ordered the execution of the remaining Shadus survivors, with the exception of the Shadus Prestige being interrogated by Takeo, and threw their bodies in with the rest of the Shadus dead.

Constantly, both of their thoughts would drift to Takeo's interrogation of the Shadus Prestige. When they were about to leave Takeo, they noticed something glimmer in his eyes that made him almost unrecognizable. He seemed all too eager to question the prisoner.

"Relax. Takeo has this covered." Hunter said to Prowlus. When he thought about it, Hunter realized he was saying it to himself as well.

"I know. But..." Prowlus kneeled next to one of his wounded warriors and started to tie up a cut on his left leg with a patch of white cloth. The warrior groaned in pain as the cloth made contact with the wound. "Never mind. I should place more faith in him. Though he has been in there for quite some time."

"It's only been half-an-hour, Chief." Hunter reminded him. Once again, he realized he was saying to himself as well, attempting to ease his own thoughts.

They both looked at the storeroom where the human and cheetah prisoner were located. They couldn't see inside, but they could hear grunts of pain and what sounded like punches being landed.

Inside the storeroom, Takeo did a hook with his right fist across the cheetahs face and did a backhanded punch as he brought the arm around. The restrained cheetah tryed to resist against the blow, but the human was stronger than he thought.

Takeo then quickly followed up by jabbing his left fist into the cheetah's ribcage, an audible crack sounding off when his fist landed.

"Yah!" cried the cheetah. Takeo stood back and cracked his knuckles, a smile appearing over his face.

The cheetah looked up at the human, though it was a little difficult to do so as his face was beginning to swell. Baring his bloody fangs, he spat a gobule of blood at Takeo. It landed on the floor a few inches away from the human's boots.

"You made noise in response to the pain alot sooner than I had anticipated. You're breaking point must not be too far away. To my disappointment, you're not so tough. No matter."

"Hah!" growled the cheetah, struggling against his bonds violently. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't budge. It didn't help that this hairless ape-like creature had broken one of his ribs. "Try me again! You're blows are weak! You'll tire yourself out!"

Takeo chuckled heartily and said, with a menacing smile, "My punches were not to attempt to break you. Their purpose was to test your resiliance to pain. I'm just tenderizing the meat, so to speak. Now then..." The human turned his head to look around. He wanted a cutting tool, but his knife was in the fireplace and he wanted to save that for later.

"I'll be back. Don't you worry." Takeo promised. He stepped outside and looked around. He saw Prowlus and Hunter walk up to him as soon as they saw him emerge.  

"Takeo. Have you been successful?" Prowlus asked.

"May I borrow your dagger?"

This caught the cheetah by surprise and he eyed the human cautiously.

"What for? Where's yours?"

"My knife is being used for other purposes. I just need a replacement for a little while." The human said without any emotion. This caused the two cheetahs to feel uneasy, but Prowlus did unsheath his dagger and handed it to Takeo by the hilt.

"Thank you. I will return this to you when I have finished." Takeo then turned around and headed back in, disappearing as the flap closed.

The two cheetahs looked at each other. After watching the hut for a moment, they turned around and headed back to the wounded.

"I apologize. You are my guest and I shouldn't have walked out on you like that." Takeo said, with false sincerity. The restrained Prestige bared his fangs and hissed.

"Now then..." Takeo quickly stabbed the dagger into the cheetah's arm, causing him to yelp and growl in pain. Takeo roughly pulled on the dagger, dragging it across the arm so it left open wounds the size of of tip of his finger. He didn't want the cheetah to bleed too much.

The cheetah was struggling even more violently to the point where Takeo was afraid that the ropes would fail to hold him in place. He struck the cheetah again repeatedly in the face to subdue him. It was moderately effective; the cheetah was still struggling but less so.  

Takeo placed the knife ontop of a storage urn, and wiped his hand on the cheetahs clothing, smearing blood on it. The cheetah was panting heavily from the pain, moaning pathetically, and shaking.

The human moved to some of the urns and boxes, opening and closing them as he examined each of the contents inside.

"Oh!" Takeo exclaimed. He had moved behind the cheetah to one of the urns and saw white powder contained in it. He stuck his finger in and pulled it out. He stuck his tongue out to taste it the powder on his finger. "Salt! Good!" He reached in with his left hand, pulled out a small mound of it and made his way back infront of the cheetah. "I was afraid there wouldn't be in any in this storage room."

The cheetah looked at salt pile in the human's hand, unsucessfully trying to hide his nervousness.

Takeo smiled again and sprinkled some into the wounds on the cheetah's arm.

"YAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!" The cheetah screamed as the salt made contact with his wound. It felt as if burning coals was being plunged into his arm.

"That's not even the beginning. Hold still..." Takeo said, grasping the cheetah's mangled arm. The cheetah was squirming all he could in his grip, but it was futile. Takeo the plunged the whole salt pile in his hand into the wounds.

The expected screaming and cries were alot louder than the human expected. The howling of pain was extremely similar to the howls of pain from the tigers during a battle in China he had taken part in. They were mutilated by Japanese artillery fire and the soldiers quickly and painlessly killed them. The howling from the cheetah was louder than he had heard from the tigers and he winced from it.

The cheetah was struggling even harder than before, the expected reaction from an increase of adrenaline. Thankfully, the bonds held him in place.

Takeo grabbed the cheetah by the collar of his clothing after the howling had quieted down into a furious set of growls and moans when the pain was beginning to subside and shouted, "Tell me what everything you know and then there will be no more pain for you! I suggest you take my offer."

The cheetah growled again and spat another gobule of blood at him, this time successfully hitting Takeo in the cheek with it.

The human backed up and placed a hand on his cheek, taking a small sample of the blood and examining it. Then, with a blank expression, he said, "So be it."

Takeo moved to the fireplace and pulled his knife out quickly. The blade was glowing bright orange; a testament of the amount of heat and time it spent in the fire. He observed it slowly, then turned around.

The cheetah audibly gulped and panted with fear when he saw the blade, but he quickly put on a composure of toughness to it. The pain was barely beginning to subside in his arm and now this.

Takeo stepped closer and closer, an terrifying blank look on his face and stopped when he was almost hovering over the cheetah. The cheetah was trembling violently, from the pain, blood loss, and fear.

"の叫び !(NAKE SAKEBE! = Scream in pain!)" Takeo then plunged the glowing knife into the cheetah's left leg. The screaming that emanated from the cheetah was a blood chilling noise that Takeo had heard many times, albeit at different pitches compared to the cheetah.

There was an audible sizzling sound as the heat from the blade seared flesh, blood, muscle and fur. Takeo drove the knife even further until it came across something hard, which the human knew it was the femur. With greater strength, he pressed into the bone, an audible cracking noise sounding out as he literally pried the femur apart with the knife, sinking the blade into the marrow. The cheetah's light frame also meant weaker bones, which made it alot easier for Takeo to do.

The screaming was non-stop, and the struggling even more riotous. Takeo quickly pulled the blade out and stood back. The knife was still glowing orange and the wound was smoking. The heat had cauterized the wound so no blood was flowing out.

The cheetah was whimpering and sobbing. He had finally broken. It didn't take as long as Takeo had suspected.

"Please....p-p-please....no more...I beg you..." he sobbed uncontroablly. There were tears streaming out of his eyes, wetting his fur and the floor.

"You know what I want." Takeo replied, tightening his grip on the knife.

The cheetah continued to sob pitifully, his trembling rigorous. After a few minutes, he said, "We...we...we..were the only r-raid to take place on th-this village...."

This bit Takeo found surprising, but kept silent.

"O-our superiority wa-wa-was to ensu-ensure our victory....we h-hadn't counted on f-f-fi-firm resistance and neither did we expect you to ta- to take part." The cheetah continued, his voice constantly breaking from the crying.   

"And the preperations on Warfang? What of that?"

"O-o-our army was s-struck by the D-D-Dark Ma-Master's forces. It slow-slowed us d-down, but we could recover quickly. Our attack is to t-t-t-take place two days after tommorrow."

Takeo kept silent and listened intently, watching the cheetah with disgust.

"W-we have s-small contingents in th-the city posing a-as merchants, r-re-ready to strike at the heads of W-W-Warfang's army. Their first targets: The Guardians Then they are to strike the gar-garrison commanders. A-all bu-but the Ice Guardian Cyril, w-were to be murdered the night before."

"Cyril? Why is he being spared?"

The cheeath looked up at the human, tears still pouring out of his eyes. "Our Chief...has...plans for the I-Ice D-Dragon. Cy-Cyril is di-directly responsible for the d-death of his three sons. It's-it's one of the re-reasons why Shadus is waging war."

"Your plan won't work. The other Guardians are away at the other provinces." Takeo pointed out.

"O-our sh-shamans have seen them c-coming back. Cy-Cyril is already he-here. The others will be here in t-two days time."

How could the shamans tell the time frame of their return? It's a question Takeo would have to ask later.

"Even so, I highly doubt you could so easily murder them. They are more powerful than you could-"

"The assassination g-groups have we-weapons made out of the cry-crystals that the dr-dragons harness pow-power from. Our shamans have corrupted them with dark rituals. No-now, they are even more lethal again-against dragons. It drains the-their energy and absorbs elemental power."

"What else?" There was no response. "WHAT ELSE?!"

"Th-that's all I know! I swear! I swear! Pl-please don't hurt me! I told you everything!"

Takeo looked at him deep in the eyes. While they were foreign, he could see the cheetah was telling the truth.

"Don't worry. I won't hurt you." Takeo then rasied his knife high in manner showing he was going to strike again.

"この場所はあなたのお墓にならなければならない。(KOKOGA KISAMA NO HAKABA DA = This shall become your grave.)"  

"NO! NOOOO! NOOOOOOOOO-!" The scream of terror was silenced as Takeo plunged the heated blade into the cheetah's head. The cheetah's body went limp immediately. With a grunt of effort, Takeo yanked the blade out of the dead Prestige's head and walked over to the fireplace, placing his blade ontop of the mantle so it could cool.

He immediately headed for the entrance flap to relay what he learned.